Here is fun way to see which power plants in the world are contributing the most to climate change. Click on down to Carma.org. CARMA stands for carbon monitoring for action and is:
A massive database containing information on the carbon emissions of over 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies worldwide. Power generation accounts for 40% of all carbon emissions in the United States and about one-quarter of global emissions. CARMA is the first global inventory of a major, emissions-producing sector of the economy.
What makes this database useful is it provides you with the information to see where high carbon emissions are coming from. That information becomes political when you understand where our big carbon polluters are located, what fuel provides the energy source, what companies operate these plants, and which politicians line their pockets with dirty money. So, come on down, you Carma Chameleons...
It is probably a little early in the day for obscure references to a Boy George and Culture Club song (Karma Chalemeon) from 1984, but "a man without conviction" summarizes every Republican running for president. I may not be completely in love with any of the Dems running for president, but every single one of them is 1000 times better than the Karma Khameleons running with big, hairy Rs hanging down between their legs. With the exception of McCain, the Republicans are climate change deniers and determined to make big coal the center of their energy policies.
If you look at carbon emissions per country, the United States is number one with 2,790,000,128 tons of CO2 produced from power plants in the past year. China is a close second with 2,680,000,000 tons.
In the United States, we have 9,190 power plants and 2,460 (26.8%) are very dirty (CO2 produced per megawatt).
Here are the dirtiest of the dirty.
- Scherer (Juliette, Georgia)
This plant churns out 25,300,000 tons of CO2 per year and is the second largest source of mercury pollution. A few facts about Scherer:
Possibly the largest (in output) coal-fired power plant in the country. 3.3 million kilowatts. This plant was rated as the worst emitter of carbon dioxide in the country in 1999. It is owned by the Georgia Power Company, which itself is owned by one the largest electrical utilities in the country, the Southern Company, based in Atlanta.
The neighbors of the plant are getting restless.
We may just be in the middle of a sea change. Four years ago this week, I watched in a muggy auditorium at Macon High School as hundreds of local citizens told the Georgia Department of Environmental Quality that it was time to clean up mercury and other toxic pollutants coming from Southern Company's Plant Scherer upwind. While the DEQ agreed to hold a public forum, it had declined to hold a formal hearing, so great was the sway of Southern Company over the politics of the state. The prospects for cleanup in Georgia seemed dim -- after all Southern was said to run the state.
When the Bush administration successfully undid President Clinton's mercury-control regulations, and put their own "delay, dilute, and pollute" plan in place, Georgia looked like one of the last places where we would see cleanup. After all, Southern had spent a fortune and ten years trying to protect itself from having to clean up its huge coal-fired turbines.
But this year, as the public in Georgia began to wake up the threat of mercury, something surprising happened. Governor Perdue announced that he was considering overriding the weak Bush plan and putting his own in place. Then, this week, something amazing happened. Georgia announced that, yes, it was going to stand up to both Bush and Southern and require a very ambitious cleanup plan:
"Eighty (percent) to 90 percent of the time we go with the federal rule," said Ron Methier, the air branch chief of the state Environmental Protection Division. "But where we see an environmental need to go further ... we do. Georgia is fairly unique in that we have a lot more mercury problems than most states."
- Miller (Quinton, Alabama)
This coal-fired plant churns out 20,600,000 tons of CO2 per year and is the third largest source of mercury among power plants. It is owned by Alabama Power, another subsidiary of the Southern Company.
In addition to its contribution to CO2, the Miller plant was just fined for sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide pollution. To be caught by the Bush EPA and Department of Justice, you have to make Chemical Ali look like a boy scout.
WASHINGTON, DC (ENS) — --> The Alabama Power Company has agreed to pollution controls and other measures expected to cost more than $200 million to settle a case brought the federal government under the New Source Review (NSR) provisions of the Clean Air Act.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday announced the partial settlement of a case alleging violations of the against the Alabama Power Company James H. Miller, Jr. Plant, a coal-fired power plant near West Jefferson, Alabama.
Under the consent decree filed in federal court, Alabama Power is required to reduce emissions from the Miller plant of two harmful pollutants - sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) - by 28,000 tons per year.
- Bowen (Cartersville, Georgia)
This plant churns out 20,500,000 tons of CO2 per year. A few facts about Bowen:
Probably the second largest (in output) coal-fired power plant in the country. 3.2 million kilowatts.This plant was rated as the worst emitter of toxic chemicals (19.5 million pounds) in the country in 1998. It is owned by the Georgia Power Company, which itself is owned by one the largest electrical utilities in the country, the Southern Company, based in Atlanta.
From the Sierra Club:
Plant Bowen, located less than an hour from downtown Atlanta, was rated the dirtiest power plant in North America in 1998 by the Commission on Environmental Cooperation.(1) Owned by Georgia Power, it spewed out 154,000 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2001, exacerbating public health ailments in the region. Yet the Bush administration is seeking to weaken a part of the Clean Air Act that holds promise for cleaning up this pollution.
[snip]
In 1999, the Clinton administration filed lawsuits against 51 power plants, owned by 13 utilities, including Plant Bowen.(12) The lawsuits allege that these power plants have broken the law by making changes to their plants that increase pollution, without installing modern pollution control technology.(13)
In its suit against Southern Company (parent company of Georgia Power and Plant Bowen), the EPA alleged that the utility had essentially "rebuilt the engine" at one of their mammoth boilers without installing modern pollution controls, as required by law.(14) One of the changes to the New Source Review program that the administration is proposing would allow a company to spend up to 15 percent of the cost of the plant annually, and call it routine repair and maintenance.(15) This would allow entire factories to be rebuilt over time without ever installing modern pollution controls. Plants like Bowen could thus operate indefinitely, perpetuating a public health problem in Atlanta long into the future.
- Gibson (Owensville, Indiana)
Another coal-fired plant, originally owned by Cinergy, it is now owned and operated by Duke Power. It churns out 20,400,000 tons of CO2 per year and has a history of being a toxic neighbor.
In 2004, it was sued by the Illinois EPA for a toxic sulfur trioxide cloud that settled over Mt. Carmel, IL, from the plant across the Wabash River.
The is the continuing story of the Gibson Generating Station, located in Owenville, Indiana (Gibson County), across the line from Mt. Carmel, Illinois. The Illinois Attorney General announced August 9th:
Following several dramatic and possibly harmful air pollution incidents that created a hazy blue film over the small town of Mt. Carmel, Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Wabash County State’s Attorney Terry Kaid today filed a lawsuit against a nearby Indiana coal-fired power plant based on several releases of dangerous emissions.
Madigan and Kaid’s lawsuit names PSI Energy, Inc., an Indiana corporation, and Cinergy Power Generation Services, LLC, a Delaware corporation, which together own and operate the Gibson Electrical Generating Station. Located on the east side of the Wabash River, the plant is approximately two miles south of Mt. Carmel.
While Madigan and Kaid said Cinergy has been cooperative, they are filing the lawsuit to ensure that if necessary, a court could enforce an agreement on short-term operating conditions; a long-term solution to the operating problems; and the payment of appropriate penalties for violation of Illinois air pollution laws.
In 2007, it continues to be a toxic neighbor, with its cooling lake contaminated with high levels of selenium and its ash disposal pits have been leaking boron.
- W.A. Parish (Thompsons, Texas)
This coal-fired plant churns out 20,000,000 tons of CO2 per year. It has been lauded as something of a "good neighbor" for installing new scrubbing technology that will reduce CO2 emissions by 5% by 2012. From the Houston Chronicle:
Power plant operator NRG Energy plans to use a new technology to cut more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually from its W.A. Parish power plant near Sugar Land.
The process, developed by New Hampshire-based Powerspan, won't be fully operational until about 2012, and it will only cut a portion of the mostly coal-fired power plant's annual CO2 output of about 20 million tons.
But it is still expected to be the largest CO2 reduction project of its kind and could be a step forward in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"NRG believes climate change is real, and we believe it's the responsibility of the power industry to solve our part of the contribution to it," said Thad Hill, president of NRG Texas. "Coal is our most abundant energy resource, and there's no way for the U.S. to get anywhere near energy independence without finding an acceptable way to use coal."
A 5% reduction in CO2 emissions is a proverbial drop in the bucket.
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To fully appreciate all you learn from CARMA about carbon polluters in your neighborhood, state, country and rest of the world, I suggest you start with Quick Tips. You can even find where new plants are going to be built. The maps are very informative and demonstrate the challenges we face in fighting climate change. There are nearly 2500 dirty plants pumping out CO2 by the ton, all coal-fired.
Here is an example of how CARMA is a valuable political tool.
The simple search for the worst carbon offenders yielded an interesting observation. The top three offenders are owned by the Southern Company. The Southern Company has spent more money on political contributions and lobbyists than any energy company, including ExxonMobil. Most of that money has gone to Republicans, including George W. Bush. In fact, they spent $100,000 on the Bush inauguration ball in 2001. You can read about the influence buying of Southern Company here, here, and here. Here are the legislative targets for their hard and soft money contributions to politicians (programs to weaken or scuttle):
• A program to restore clear vistas to our national parks and wilderness areas;
• Enforcement of laws to ensure that old power plants are fitted with modern pollution control technologies;
• Creation of mechanisms to address global warming;
• Adoption of health standards for soot and smog that will protect our health;
• A program to address the regional transport of smog across state borders in the Eastern United States;
• The adoption of limits on emissions of toxic mercury into our air.
The money quote from Southern in the Independent article:
Asked about the huge financial contributions of the company's employees to Republican party politicians, he said: "We don't influence them, but I think it's a good thing that we are involved in the political process."
Funny, when I read about the money a utility company is spending on being "involved in the political process" I see the perfect argument for campaign finance reform.
And here is a reminder of why we cannot afford to have a Republican in the White House in 2009:
Environmental Integrity Project attorney Ilan Levin said, “While Congress is poised to seriously consider legislation to limit the greenhouse gases that made 2006 the hottest year on record, the electric power industry is racing to build a new fleet of coal-fired power plants that rely on conventional combustion technologies that would only accelerate global warming."
Once utility companies secure their air pollution permits, Levin expects them to argue that these new plants should be grandfathered, or exempt from any pending limits on greenhouse gases.
Levin says today's rush to coal reminds him of the 1970s.
"When the original Clean Air Act was passed in 1970," he said, "the electric utility industry persuaded Congress to not impose strict pollution controls on old power plants, because they would soon be replaced by newer state-of-the-art facilities. Yet despite the industry's promises, many of the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants continue to operate today."
A little CARMA and a little Google can shed a great deal of light on some very dirty bastards. Check it out.
I will leave you with Boy George: